Cassidy Haines remembers her first kiss vividly. It was on the old covered bridge the summer before her freshman year with her boyfriend of three years, Ethan Keys. But her last kiss—the one she shared with someone at her seventeenth birthday party the night she died—is a blur. Cassidy is trapped in the living world, not only mourning the loss of her human body, but left with the grim suspicion that her untimely death wasn’t a suicide as everyone assumes. She can’t remember anything from the weeks leading up to her birthday and she’s worried that she may have betrayed her boyfriend.

If Cassidy is to uncover the truth about that fateful night and make amends with the only boy she’ll ever love, she must face her past and all the decisions she made—good and bad—that led to her last kiss.

Bethany Neal’s suspenseful debut novel is about the power of first love and the haunting lies that threaten to tear it apart.

Review:

For four hours I’ve been trying to remember how I died. It’s not going very well.

So My Last Kiss is what I assumed to be similar to a mix of The Lovely Bones and Pretty Little Liars (I say assume because I haven’t actually read/watched either one). Cassidy dies under somewhat strange circumstances, and now her soul is trapped on earth until she can uncover the truth of her death.

Like most ghosts, Cassidy can’t quite remember how she died or who killed her, but slowly through flashbacks, or rather her soul being pulled into the flashbacks, and what is learnt in the present, we slowly piece together what had happened. And what had happened was an intricate web of deceit and lies that led up to that fateful night.

This is definitely a story of relationships, of the romance, friendship and family varieties. Cassidy had loved Ethan for so long, but the weeks leading up to her birthday, things weren’t quite what they seem. There’s kindling of old friendships, there’s jealousy, hidden agendas and a lot of secrets. That’s definitely the highlight of the story, trying to solve the murder, while uncovering these lies, but it was also a bit of a downfall for me. Or rather the execution, it wasn’t obvious what was happening, but the story seem to drag a bit leaving me frustrated that it took so long to get from point a to b.

What I did really enjoy about this book, was how Neal was able to bring a touch of humour to this dark scary without it being utterly corny. Especially as Cassidy tried to figure out the ins-and-outs of being a ghost.

Aren’t ghosts supposed to have some sort of agenda? I really hope mine isn’t to haunt my boyfriend’s bedroom. That is way too cliched.

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How did I magically teleport – ghost-a-port?- to my street?

And I mean I know going into a ghost story that chances of happy endings aren’t exactly high, but I loved that Neal still gave us a very heartbreaking yet heartwarming romance. (I also adored Cassidy and her little sister Jules’ relationship.)

My Last Kiss was an interesting and dark teen thriller that touches deeply on grief and living with (and in Cassidy’s case, watching her friends and family) the consequences of a death that you may have played a role in. It has it’s highs and low moments but overall an enjoyable read, especially for the mystery lovers.

{*Thank to Farrar, Straus and Giroux & Netgally for the ARC in exchange for the an honest review.

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Bethany Neal writes young-adult novels with a little dark side and a lot of kissing from her Ann Arbor, Michigan home. She is obsessed with (but not limited to): nail polish, ginormous rings, pigs, pickles, and dessert.

You can find her locked in her Writertorium for insane amounts of time. But, hey, insanity is fun! My Last Kiss is her first novel.